Verizon Moto Z4 getting August security update, while Moto Z2 Play receives June patch

Snapdragon 625 is undoubtedly one of the most used SoCs in the domain of Android smartphones. From Marshmallow to Pie till date, it is part of those platforms having rare long term support. Motorola also picked it up to design the ‘Play’ variant of Moto Z back in 2016.

The successor, i.e. Moto Z2 Play, was released next year with Snapdragon 626. As you may speculate, SD626 is a slightly overclocked variant of SD625, nothing else.

The phones from the Play family embrace the Moto Mods platform for expandability, beside being a cost effective choice for Moto fans. The close-to-stock Android distribution, coupled with the highly energy efficient SoC, made Moto Z2 Play a quick success.

However, the phone only got one major update (Nougat to Oreo) yet. Android Pie update should come (as promised by Motorola), but there is no concrete ETA. According to one official notice, the tentative plan was to make it happen before the fall of 2018 – and here we are!

Matter of fact, Moto Z2 Play owners did not even get the incremental update of Android 8.1, though regularly irregular security patches tend to pop up on the phone. Verizon pushed such an update for the carrier branded variant of the phone which brought June 2019 security patches.

System Update 14

Release date: 08/21/2019

Android™ Security Patch Level: June 1, 2019

Software Version: ODS27.76-12-42-14

What’s changing:

The current software update gives you the most up to date Android security patches on your device.

(Source)

Motorola dropped the Play lineup this year, which was a rather unexpected move from the OEM. 2019’s Moto Z4 purportedly contains all the residues of the cancelled phone; as if they just rebranded Z4 Play as the regular Z4.

The Amazon exclusive Moto Z4 got the June patch a few days ago, which also bundled various fixes related to the performance of the fingerprint scanner and Wi-Fi chip. The Verizon model, on the other hand, was rocking May patches at that moment. Well, not any more.

Dubbed as ‘System Update 1’, the OTA reportedly contains all the fingerprint scanner improvements. Moreover, August security patches are here with this update.

The version number is slightly different than the Amazon variant (PDF29.105-25-20 instead of PDF29.105-25-13).

Verizon Z4 here. Just installed the update and while there’s no notes about what updated, however:

I’m now on August 1, 2019 security patch (previously May 2019)

Fingerprint sensor is tons faster. I don’t know if I didn’t see this before, but you now have “Animation Styles” for the fingerprint “button”. More colors, and they seem to help immensely

(Source)

Do you still have hope to get Android Pie on Moto Z2 Play? Or did you upgraded to Moto Z4? Let us know by commenting below.

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